Brittle Breakers: Won 0 Lost 6

The Breakers will take their positives where they can get ‘em after their preseason woes continued to the bitter end in Brisbane on Monday.

After finishing as the only Aussie NBL team to go winless at the ABC tournament with a third straight defeat, this time 103-89 to the Adelaide 36ers, and now a woeful 0-6 for the pre-season, the Breakers have some catching up to do between now and their October 7 opener against title favourites Melbourne United at Auckland.

Of course, getting bodies back on the court will help. Kirk Penney (calf) and Corey Webster (hip and back) missed all three games at the ABC (though Penney was close to playing the last one), while new import point guard Ben Woodside sat out the finale to rest his minor heel problem.

But right now Paul Henare’s team are at base camp, with an Everest-like climb facing them. They are turning the ball over at an alarming rate, with 26 against Adelaide to cap a poor tournament in that area, their defence is sub-par and their offence is spluttering.

Sure, they were down key men. But so have been their opponents in Brisbane. Adelaide had just one of their three imports on deck for this game, but were still able to overcome a 10-point halftime deficit and win the last two periods 58-34.

The positives? Let’s start with new face Izzy Tueta who has only been with the team a couple of weeks but certainly found his groove in this tournament finale to finish with 22 points (8/13 FG, 2/4 3PT) and five assists. He is clearly going to provide some value off the bench until Shea Ili comes back from that back injury.

Young forward Finn Delany also capped a solid tournament with 12 points and six boards, and his athleticism, physicality and growing confidence certainly turned some heads in Brisbane over the last four days. Tom Abercrombie also put in another solid shift for the Breakers, even though he was not able to add to his 15 first-half points against the 36ers.